Ganja White Night's Cloud City Music Festival: Inside The Stage Design With Max Koehler

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Ganja White Night launched their inaugural Cloud City Music Festival, taking over Fiddler's Green Amphitheatre in Greenwood Village, Colorado for two nights of heavy bass and high-concept visuals. Held April 17 and 18 2026, the event ran 24 artists across two stages, with three separate performances from Ganja White Night themselves anchoring a lineup that also featured Boogie T, Truth, Jesse Royal, Zion Marley, Sister Nancy, and a deep supporting bill.

Visuals were shaped by a tightly coordinated team. Max Koehler covered stage design, VJ duties, and laser programming across both nights. The lighting, provided by Brown Note Productions, was led by Justin Casey and Nick Stabile. Pyro and flame effects were handled by JDL FX, with Alex Toffler Heiligman on the operator chair.

Turning Cloud City Into A Visual Identity

The biggest lift was translating "Cloud City" from a festival name into a look that held together across two nights, 24 artists, and a lineup shifting in tone from dub to bass to reggae. Koehler and team started with the architecture of the rig rather than the content running through it.

"The biggest design challenge was crafting a cohesive visual identity that fully embodied the Cloud City theme. We anchored the production around five 12-foot diameter trusses arranged in a wave-like pattern. To emphasize the fluid shape, we used Tornados and Strike M fixtures, and we filled the central space with a dynamic array of Pixel Line IPs and MegaPointes." - Max Koehler

Those five curved trusses, staggered across the stage in a wave, gave the rig movement even before a single fixture kicked on. ACME Tornados and Chauvet Color STRIKE M fixtures traced the curves to reinforce the fluid silhouette. Heavy pixel work from the ACME Pixel Line IP's gave the overstage grid a dynamic ceiling.

Scenic, Art, And A Pair Of Eyes That Came To Life

The Cloud City theme extended well past the truss layout. Festival and stage art came from My Name is Ebo, with additional scenic builds from Dark Moon Designs, Deadfish Studios, and Towr Media. One detail worth calling out: the Cloud City scenic designed by Ebo had LED panels tucked behind each of the piece's eyes, running looping animations that gave the face its own internal life throughout the weekend.

Lasers, Video, And A Pyro Finale Built For Night Two

On the video side, Koehler programmed VJ content across a 168-panel ROE CB5 wall, and ran the laser design through 16 Kvant Atom 42 units tied directly into the lighting language.

SFX came in heavy, especially on the back end of the run. JDL FX fired two 5-way Hurricane Flame Units and eight standard Hurricane Flame Units across the weekend, alongside more than 350 pyro devices. Night two closed with a 45-second pyro finale built into the last moments of Ganja White Night's final set.